It is the end of another busy year of book reviewing for my team.

So I now have great pleasure in announcing the winners of our #RBRT 2017 Book Wards

Fantasy / Scifi

Winner: Do You Realize? by Kevin Kuhn

George is a middle-management, middle-class, middle-aged guy who hates his job and struggles to stay connected to his wife and teenage children. Most guys might end up with a steamy affair and a flashy car for their midlife crisis, but George gets a quirky, philosophical physics professor named Shiloh. Trapped with this mysterious misfit on his morning commuter train, George is dragged into awkward conversations about love, fear, music, and the meaning of life. Shiloh asks George to beta-test an app he wrote for the new Apple Watch–and with a free watch included, how could he say no? When tragedy strikes, throwing George out of his uncomfortable comfort zone, he…

Ever wondered what a fiction editor at a popular women’s magazine does? Here’s your chance to find out.

I am a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association. I am also a member of their blogging team. At the end of last year I was invited to launch a new monthly blogging series on the RNA blog interviewing book bloggers and reviewers.

The latest in the series featured my interview with Karen Byrom who is the fiction editor at My Weekly magazine. I am attaching a link below so you can take a look.

My enormously grateful thanks to the author Ellie Holmes for a copy of White Lies in return for an honest review.

White Lies is published today 27th June 2017 and is available in e-book here.

White Lies

A WET NIGHT. A CAR CRASH.

THREE LIVES ARE CHANGED FOREVER…

Sam Davenport is a woman who lives her life by the rules. When her husband Neil breaks those rules too many times, Sam is left wondering not only if he is still the man for her but also if it’s time to break a few rules of her own.

Actions, however, have consequences as Sam soon discovers when what starts out as an innocent white lie threatens to send her world spiralling out of control.

White Lies is a warm, engaging read about love, deceit, betrayal and hope.

My Review of White Lies

I am a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association. I am also a member of their blogging team. At the end of last year I was invited to launch a new monthly blogging series on the RNA blog interviewing book bloggers and reviewers.

The second in the series went live earlier this week and I am attaching a link below so you can take a look, if you wish.

Everyone will have a different take but I believe asking ‘Is it worth it?’ is actually the wrong question.

I believe the questions you should be asking yourself instead are ‘Why do I want to write a novel?’ and ‘What do I hope to achieve by writing it?’

It seemed to me, reading the comments people were making in the debate, that far too many of them had launched into writing a novel expecting instant gratification and financial reward when the book was released. For them it wasn’t worth it, it was never likely to be because they thought there was a quick route to success, a sure fire formula to achieve bestseller status. A strong dose of realism soon put that right.

If I worked out how many hours I had spent at various keyboards in my life writing novels and then worked out the net sales of my books so far and from that took an hourly rate it would be abysmal. But I haven’t spent half my life at a keyboard because all I wanted to do was make money. I put those hours in because I have a compunction to write. It’s a need deep within me. It’s always been there, I hope it always will be. I have to satisfy that need. I have to have an outlet for my creativity. I need to pour my stories on to the page or the screen and see them come alive. I could not carry all those stories in my head and not let them out.

Sometimes writing is a struggle but it can be a joy too. The thrill of capturing that scene you have been carrying in your mind., creating that tormented character you want to place at the heart of your next book , setting out on their journey, eager to bring them to a better place by the end of the book.

I am a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association. I am also a member of their blogging team. At the end of last year I was invited to launch a new monthly blogging series on the RNA blog interviewing book bloggers and reviewers. Book bloggers are a vital part of the world of books but their praises often go unsung.

The first in the new series of blogs went live last week and I am attaching a link below.